ITHACA

As you set out for Ithaca
Hope your road is a Long one,
Full of adventure. Full of Discovery
laistrygonians, Cyclops (Gertrude)
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:

You'll never find things like that on your way
As long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
As long as rare excitement
Stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops, (Gertrude)
wild Poseidon - you wont encounter them

Unless you bring them along inside your soul,
Unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
With what pleasure, what joy.
You enter harbours youre seeing for the first time;
May you stop at Phoenician trading stations
To buy fine things,
Mother of Pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
Sensual perfume of every kind -
As many sensual perfumes as you can;
And may you visit many Egyptian cities
To learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what youre destined for.
But dont hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,

So youre old by the time you reach the island,
Wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
Not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you wouldnt have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka wont have fooled you.
Wise as you have become, so full of experience,
You'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

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By Constantine P Kavafis 1911
Written in Greek
Inspired my Homers return journey of Odysseus to his home island.

Handed to me by a rather magical music teacher, Mrs Stacey Caponas
2015